The most beautiful gift of nature is that it gives one pleasure to look around and try to comprehend what we see” – Albert Einstein
After usual 3 wake up calls in the night, the morning was early and dark as I woke up at 4.45am to do my yoga practice before Jyothis and I head to the nearby church for a visit at 6.20am as per our plan. I was excited as this was the first trip I was taking and stepping out to see the world that surrounded us in the centre. It was a short trip though as we didn’t go inside but saw the morning prayers and watched more people make their way.
As we walked crossing the centre on the other side, we came across a bridge that we took as a part of our short walk and she kept watching out for me, asking me to walk slowly. Who knew these slopes one day would hurt by simply walking when there were days when I would run on them, up and down training for a marathon. This is the same bridge I would see from a distance, from the dining hall and now I was walking on it. I saw a well from the bridge and thought if it could talk and share its story, what would that be? Why has it been left in this condition and not used anymore?
Once back, I went to my room and with one hour in hand before breaky, started doing my packing as I had one more day to go. How fast time flies, feels like yesterday I arrived as an explorer, adventurer ready to absorb everything and now am leaving as a learnt person who knows a lot more.
After breaky, I decided to walk for a bit to digest the meal and wished others passing by as usual. Once in the room, I continued writing my questions for the final consultation in few hours under notes on my phone. Today’s treatment was the same as what I had experienced 2 days ago, with the exception of milk as it was cooling my body from inside and that wasn’t the intention, the doctor had explained. I knew I was lactose intolerant but it seemed any relation with milk wasn’t feasible 🙂
Consultation started with normal procedure, pulse, tongue, eyes then other updates and then we moved onto the main discussion. He had a paper with list of foods and columns labelled as – very good, good, not so good and not good at all. But before that, he asked me what I thought my Dosha was and I confidently replied – Pitta and Kapha. To my surprise, he said I am Pitta and Vata. He explained that with all my activeness, I am Vata as Kapha tend to take it slow. He mentioned how my personality is such that if I am in a room of 10 people, I can make a conversation. Interestingly enough, he said I have Kapha too as I am calm but that’s maybe because of my yoga and meditation practice.
Amazing how things are discovered. Some stuff I knew and some were a surprise in the food list, like how I am not supposed to have chilli and pepper however they are spices I like a lot. How I should have turmeric and I have that in almost everything I make at home. So I am a bit off track and with this guidance, I hope to be back on track in the coming months. After an hour long session which was filled with my questions, I thanked the doctor for his time to which he politely replied that it is their pleasure to answer our questions and they always welcome the curious questions.
Tomorrow would be my consultation for health, more like a medicinal handover, how to manage the next few weeks, what medicines to continue, the oils etc as it will be the last day of this amazing journey.
While walking for lunch, I noticed some people cutting coconuts from one of the trees and one coconut guy asked if I wanted, why not? So he cut one, I thanked him and sipped as I walked to the dining hall. There Jyothis was eagerly waiting with the Rubik’s cube as she managed to reach the same level as Vishnu and now wanted to go one step ahead. So I showed her the next stage and she came back all done, then again and again. She’s picking up fast and well, I was happy for her. It’s amazing how something like this can connect people. It is a proud achievement for anyone who can finish it I guess, the excitement I felt few days ago and I now see the same, maybe more in her face and am happy to contribute to that.
I have now been putting things together of what to carry, my list was increasing and so was the kgs leading towards excess baggage in my head. I have to stop I thought and just then thought of something more essential. How do people pack their life in two suitcases when I have so much from this one trip? I have an Ayurveda side, a yoga side, fitness side with gym clothes and shoes, work side, personal side and when at home, a completely different side. How can I fit all of this in a box or suitcase I wondered, as soon I will be moving places again once back to where I belong.
Tea time was exciting after a warm treatment for the knees as they had presented us with freshly cut mangoes, very cooling indeed. I was happy as I had wished and prayed for them to be available for tea time today or tomorrow. It was like a wish list, I wondered if we live life daily as a wish list, how much happier it would make us from inside. Even if in this case it was from the stomach 🙂
I showed Jyothis one more step and she happily sat in a corner focusing on what mattered most to her, and somehow smiling instead of showing her frustration in the process. By dinner time, I had a new student as Dr. Bhavna (now I know her name) came up to me and asked me to teach her from scratch. Michael from the other centre (homestay) had come to visit and we greeted each other, saw him holding a bouquet of yellow flowers and a mark on his head which reminded me of how I was welcomed here 10 days ago. Soon after, we had a presentation with the doctor on Ayurveda, something we intended to do a few days earlier but due to technical issues it was postponed. It was an insightful 30 minutes session with brief details on what Ayurveda is, the 3 Doshas and with great interest he highlighted and compared people in the room to make it interactive. He mentioned how Pitta like to be early than the time allotted for consultation, their personality etc like he was reading me out. I knew a bit of it but enjoyed thoroughly how he explained it all. In fact, soon after I was visualising what my family, friends and colleagues are. As if he read my mind, he suggested the same, that with plain observation we can easily identify someone. Having said that, he also highlighted the age factor and what Dosha is prominent during the time of the day.
Calling it a night we parted ways and I felt a bit emotional as tomorrow would be the last sleep.
